Running Late

In October I was stunned to learn I had been chosen as the Craft Stamper's Take it Make it design winner. As part of the prize I was asked to make an inspiration sample for their December challenge theme - which I did except I got muddled with the dates and thought it went out on 18th....but it was on the blog post a week earlier and I missed blogging it at the same time. So better late than never here is the project I made.

 I made three bangle decorations by filling an old sparkly metal bangle with glitter glue and letting it dry - as in the last Craft Stamper magazine.  

Once dry I stamped on two with snowflakes 

 and on the third with a winter scene in blue stazon

 I then hung them together and added die cut snowflakes, liquid pearl drops and a sentiment. Here it is again hanging in the window - The one thing I didn't think about was how difficult it would be to photograph.

I'm sharing my Christmas hanging here -
Try it on Tuesday - Snow,snowflakes and winter whites
That's Crafty - Anything Goes
Love to Create - Anything Goes Mixed Media
The Artistic Stamper - Christmas

Happy Crafting - thanks for stopping by....Esther xx

Vintage Christmas

I can't believe it's been so long since I was last here...life just gets in the way sometimes.  I haven't had much time to make Christmas cards either but I'm trying to put a few together and here's one I finished today.

I started with a Brusho background over which I stamped and embossed snowflakes and stamped some Christmas themed script. I also inked the edges with Distress inks. Some blobs of stickles finished off the background layer. 

 The sentiment is stamped onto Kraft paper, embossed in gold and inked with walnut stain distress ink before adding a few splashes of water. I added a mat of gold and hand drew a border on each layer.  This came together very easily and I have some more Brusho backgrounds prepared to make some more. I'm sharing this one here - 

A Vintage Journey - Vintage Christmas

Mixed Media Card - Celebration

Mixed Media Mojo - Sentiment

Stamps and Stencils - Christmas Grunge

Anything but Cute - Happy Mail
Artistic Stamper - Christmas

Penny Black and More - Anything Goes with a Stamp

Winter Wonderland at FSC

Hello - it's been a while since I posted and I've not had much time for crafting either but I have made a few more Christmas cards and this one is my sample for the latest challenge over at Fashionable Stamping where the theme is Winter Wonderland. 

The background is a Gelli Plate print on which I used a snowflake stencil - The Stamp is by Stamp Addicts and I've embossed it in black on silver card and I've added some liquid pearls, stickles and crystals for that touch of sparkle and bling.

As always my fellow FSC teamies have created some beautiful works of art so please head over and check them out. I hope you feel inspired to join our challenge - Don't forget we are a stamping challenge and we especially need to see that the stamping is the focal point on the project and that this must follow the format of the theme. NO Digi stamps please, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. Our sponsor is Flonzcraft and the winner chosen at random will receive a voucher for $20 - we also give special mention to our top 3. Happy Crafting....Esther xx

Weather Forecast at Fashionable Stamping

HI - thanks everyone for your beautiful entries to our Anything Goes theme at Fashionable Stamping Challenge. This fortnight the lovely Clare has chosen 'Weather Forecast' as out theme - Anything from a sunny Autumn scene, a rainy day, windy weather, an amazing sunset to a snowy Christmas card. Just remember the stamping!!!

I'm concentrating on my Christmas Cards at the moment so my weather is snow - the background is a printed paper which I've stamped snowflakes on and the pine branch across the top in distress inks.

I stamped the bauble onto a Gelli plate print, then again onto a paler print and embossed both with Silver EP. I cut just the oval scene from the paler image which I stuck onto the darker one which I also cut out. 

and of course I've added some stickles for extra bling.

As always my fellow FSC teamies have created some beautiful works of art so please head over and check them out. I hope you feel inspired to join our challenge - Don't forget we are a stamping challenge and we especially need to see that the stamping is the focal point on the project and that this must follow the format of the theme. NO Digi stamps please, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. Our sponsor is Flonzcraft and the winner chosen at random will receive a voucher for $20 - we also give special mention to our top 3. Happy Crafting....Esther xx

Holiday Spirit with Fashionable Stamping

Hi all - blimey it's December and Christmas is just around the corner - I'm frantically trying to get some last minute cards made, and am sharing one of them for our new challenge over at FSC. The very talented Terry is encouraging us all to get into the 'Holiday Spirit' (this doesn't have to mean just Christmas!) and to give us a bit more time during such a  busy period we're running for four weeks instead of two !

My card has a background created by adding paint over a clear embossed stamped image. The main stamped image is from Le Blanche and the patterned paper I've used to die cut the banner is from Craft Individuals.  

The sentiment is a Stamp Addicts stamp, embossed with Diamond Sparkle EP, arranged with more die cuts and of some milled lavender distress stickles. The rest of the FSC team have, as always, made some beautiful projects for inspiration, so do pay them a visit. It would be great to have you join our challenge - don't forget we MUST see some stamping, not justDigis, and the winner will be chosen at random and receive a voucher to spend over at FlonzCraft.

I'm also sharing this here - 

Sugar Creek Hollow - Vintage Christmas

Addicted To Stamps and More - Holidays

The Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by - Happy Crafting...Esther xx

Shabby Chic Christmas at FSC

Hi - here we are again over at FSC and this fortnight Shirley has set the challenge theme - Shabby Chic Christmas. Shirley's even provided us with an explanation - 'Shabby chic is so easy peasy, all you have to do is make it look old. Rip, tear and distress those edges for a real shabby appearance'. I went with non-traditional colours for my card -

The background is a piece of coordination's whitewash card, embossed with snowflakes embossing folder and then sanded. The stamped image is by Lablanch and I've stamped it over a background of smooched distress ink and snowflake stamped images. I created sparkly borders, and added punched and die cut details - loving my new snowflake border die !!

The rest of the FSC team have, as always, made some beautiful projects for inspiration, so do pay them a visit. It would be great to have you join our challenge - don't forget we MUST see some stamping, not justDigis, and the winner will be chosen at random and receive a voucher to spend over at FlonzCraft.
I'm also sharing my card here - 
Happy Campers - Glitter It
Papertake weekly - Snow and Ice
Penny Black and More - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations -  Christmas
The Artistic Stamper - Christmas

Inkless stamping at FSC

I know I always say this but how quickly have the last two weeks flashed by - it's already time for another FSC challenge ! This fortnight our newest DT member Laura has challenged us to stamp using anything BUT ink! After a bit of a panic I turned to Craft Stamper magazine for help and came across a technique stamping with glue and using metal foil/gilding flakes, so I had a go - 

I started off with a LaBlanche stamp and just 'inked' the edges (with glue) and applied red oxidising metal leaf to the stamped image, don't know about you but when I use this stuff I end up with bits floating about everywhere !! I then stamped my favourite PSX bauble, again with glue and applied the same metal leaf. For the second bauble I applied gold foil to the glue stamped image. The background paper is from Crafty Individuals. The red oxidising flakes have a really lovely shimmer which was tricky to capture, but you can see the lovely shine from the gold foil here.

 The rest of the FSC team have, as always, made some beautiful projects for inspiration, so do pay them a visit. It would be great to have you join our challenge - don't forget we MUST see some stamping.  Laura has said we can use ink elsewhere on our project, but the stamped image must be something other than ink and  having thought about it there are all sorts of mediums you can use to stamp with - paint, gesso, distress stains, glue, even just water onto distress inked card, inktense blocks, markers. As always the winner will be chosen at random and receive a voucher to spend over at FlonzCraft and we'll have a top three.  

I'm sharing my card in a few challenges too - 

Allsorts - Christmas Cheer

Penny Black and More - Anything Goes

Stamping Senstions - Christmas

The Artistic Stamper - Christmas

Happy Crafting...Esther

Cards at Fashionable Stamping

Hello - it's time for another challenge over at Fashionable Stamping and this fortnight the theme is 'Cards' so that means no tags, ATCs, altered projects etc. As I've just this weekend started my Christmas cards I'm sharing this one 

The background is distress inks on white card, covered with a layer of Tim Holtz tissue, which I've then stamped with snowflakes.  The focal element is a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper, embossed with silver EP on more white card coloured with distress inks and some added stickles. 

The rest of the FSC team have, as always, made some beautiful projects for inspiration, so do pay them a visit. It would be great to have you join our challenge - don't forget we MUST see some stamping, not justDigis, and the winner will be chosen at random and receive a voucher to spend over at FlonzCraft.

Musical Stampings

Hello all, well after a week off for me from Fashionable Stamping, it’s my first time to choose the theme for our fortnightly challenge – and I've picked musical. As always we need to see some stamping on your entry  -  DIGI stamps are NOT allowed. Our sponsor Marina from Cottage Crafts is allowing the winner to choose anything from her shop up to the value of €7 + postage and packing.  I've combined music with Christmas to try and get some of my Christmas cards made as I'm not getting on very well with them !

I used distress inks, masks and stamps to create a background and then layered on some Christmas Carol manuscript, die cuts and scraps of embossed glassine paper. I added aged ivory embossing enamel to the corners and then wished I hadn't – but it was too late by then and I didn't have time to start again!

The main image is a Le Blanche stamp (one of a set of four I got from E-Bay!) I’ve again coloured with Distress inks and then used Picket fence distress marker to highlight before adding some glitter to the edges.

I hope you join us for a fortnight of musical creativity and look forward to visiting your blogs. Don’t forget to visit my team mates for some glorious inspiration! Esther xx

I’m sharing my card here also -

Live and Love Crafts – Christmas

Happy Daze – Brighten up the Month

Crafty ribbons – Christmas

Let it Snow...

.....well no not really - I know it's pretty but i'm in no hurry to have to battle the snow to get to work. But I have enjoyed being a bit creative with a snowy theme today. It's been ages since I've had time to browse through blogland but I did a bit of hopping this morning and found inspiration to try something a bit different. Brenda at Floral fantasies has a tutorial for these ornaments. Brenda uses DP, but I got out my inks and stamps and did what I do best - make an inky mess. I clear embossed Crafty Individuals snowflakes on half the pieces and coloured with Faded Jeans Distress inks. The other pieces I coloured with Tumbled Glass DI and stamped with Faded Jeans.

For the Centre piece I stamped a PSX snowman (The first Christmas stamp I ever bought and I still love it) onto a scalloped circle coloured with DI , added some colour with Promarkers and triple clear embossed over the lot.  On the final layer I sprinkled a little white embossing powder and love how it turned out - I think it looks a bit like floating snow. All I have to do now is decide where to hang it.

I'm sharing this here -

The Stamp Man - Create an Ornament

The Artistic Stamper - Christmas

Craft Your days Away - Snowmen

Moving Along with The Times - Last minute Christmas

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland - Let it Snow

My second make today was a simple card - having to do quick cards now as rapidly running out of time. Inspired by CAS-ual Fridays I made some snowflake masks, sprayed with Perfect pearls mist, then layered a sheet of acetate over the top stamped with white snowflakes , kept in place with brads.  

Hope you've all enjoyed the weekend  - Thanks for stopping by...Esther xx

Christmas in Pink

Really quick post to share another Christmas card...I'm so mad busy at the moment.  This is a great stamp by Judikins that  I've coloured with Pro-markers, backing papers are DCWV and I've added a glittery border and stickles to the tree baubles and star - sorry photo's not very good so all the sparkle doesn't show.  I'm sharing this at -

I Love Pro-Markers - Glitter and Glitz

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland - Make your cards Sparkle

Hope you've enjoyed the weeekend....Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate all your comments and I'm sorry I'm not getting much time to visit anyone at the moment....Esther xx

Christmas Easel Card

Phew - what a busy couple of weeks, it's been mad at work and I had a christmas card order to finish for my best friend who has been to stay. We had a fabulous day yesterday at Lakeside shopping Centre starting our Christmas shopping and enjoying some girly time.  Which all means I haven't had any spare blog/crafty time so here is a card I made a few weeks ago but haven't shown yet -

I watercoloured the image, printed the nativity story on my PC and used distress inks and stamps to make a background paper. The ribbon is recycled from last years Christmas presents and I've  stamped a star to which i've added lots of stickles....gotta have glitter for christmas!

I kept the colours neutral with the touch of blue and they happend to fit the colour story over at the Play Date Cafe so I'm sharing this there as well as at - Allsorts - Christmas easel Card,  The Friday Mash Up - recycled materials and Totally Papercrafts - Glitter it

Hope you're enjoying the weekend..Thanks for looking...Esther xx

Black and White at the Craft-Room

Goodness I can't believe we've come round to another challenge at Craft-Room again already. Thanks for your lovely feline featuring entries, I love cats so really enjoyed browsing your creations.         

So now on to this weeks challenge. Kim has chosen Black and White and I must admit it's one of my favourates.  I've stuck with Christmas and started off with black soot coredinations distress card stock which I ran through the snowflake texture fade folder and then sanded. I've used a well loved stamp I've had for ages and loaded up the snowflakes, glitter and felt ribbon. 

So get creative and have fun with our theme and you could win £10 to spend in The fab Craft-Room shop. Remember though to be eligible to win and to show support as a thank you for sponsoring the challenge we do ask you to display the shop logo on your sidebar

I'm also sharing my card at -

Clear it out - Trim

My time to Craft - Punches/Dies

Secret Crafter - White plus one colour

I look forward to visiting to see what you create....Esther xx   

.....and back to Christmas

Hello - where has the weekend gone ? I've spent two lovely days in my spare room making Christmas cards and I can't believe it's sunday evening.  So here are a couple of the cards I've made -

This is the first time I've used this cute Lily of the Valley stamp and have coloured it with Pro-markers. I love this stamp but don't often do cute cards because I really struggle with knowing what to do once I've got the coloured image. In the end I've used the leaf detail from the image as inspiration to decorate the rest of the card using a sizzix holly die and a free leaf stamp from Craft Stamper mag. The swirl is a Marianne design die. I'm sharing this card at  -

Passion for Pro-markers - Christmas Critters

Winter Wonderland - Robin Redbreast

Anything Goes - Die cuts/punches

Stamptacular Sunday - You Choose

My second card is quite different - I started by stamping a background of blue snowflakes then stamped white stazon snowflakes on a piece of acetate which I layered over the top.  The sentiment isn't very clear on the pic, it says 'Let it Snow' and is a Penny Black stamp. I've cut it with my nesties and added some lace, ribbon, die cut snowflakes and crystals. I'm sharing this at -

Crafty Ribbons - Ribbon and lace

The Friday Mash up - Snowflakes

Totally Papercraft - Use acetate

I hope you've all enjoyed the weekend, thanks for stopping by...Esther xx

Quick LIM Christmas

Hi - quick dash on here inbetween report writing. I'm working from home today and needed a break from the tediousness of trying to catch up with the paperwork that seems to be never ending. So I've hopped on to share my card for this weeks Less is More challenge. The lovely ladies' theme this week is a one layer card with

I made my card  when my mum popped over for a crafty session a few days ago. She had some tapestry snowflake stamps but didn't know what to do with them so we had a play and my card was created. While browsing the entries before writing my post I noticed I haven't been the only one with the idea of stamping through a heart template - including Mandi, but hopefully mine is different enough. I've used my new Martha Stewart Punch (courtesy of my Simon Says prize) down the edge, added a sentiment and a few touches of stickles !

Not a great photo sorry - it's so dark here today! Also sharing at Creative Inspirations where the theme is one layer cards.

Well better get back to it..at least we're nearly at the weekend !!

Esther xx

Christmas Cats

Wow - thanks so much for all your great festive entries to our Christmas challenge.  We'll have a hard job choosing our top three - thank goodness random org choosed the winner.  This week it's Zoe's turn to choose the them and she has this to say -

'As I write Mistress Minx is resting on the back of the sofa behind me you are never far from a feline in this house! So that is my challenge this time to you all please make anything you like in any medium or style but it must feature a cat or cats. Have fun.'

As a fellow cat lover I really enjoyed creating my card for this theme - I even managed to keep it Christmas !  

I used various colours of distress inks on my craft mat and spritzed with water before smooshing a piece of coated card stock to create a patterned sheet which I stamped on with my cat stamp several times choosing areas I thought would make good cat markings. I created a reverse image for a bit of variation by rolling my brayer over the inked stamp and then rolling it on to the card stock. I created a distress inks background with masked moon, brick wall and flying Santa before adding the cut out cats, glamour dust and some white flower soft. 

I wonder if Santa visits cats too....?

To join our furry fun get on over to Craft-Room challenge and add a link so we can visit your creation and you may be the winner of a £10 voucher to spend in The Craft-Room store.

By the way have you seen our treasure hunt, there is a fabulous Indigo Blu stamp plate to be won! Click here for details.

I'm sharing this at  -

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Simonsaysstamp- Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday - Animal Crackers

ABC Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - Anything Goes

Esther xx

Vintage Christmas

I've been in a vintagy mood today and have had a lovely time getting messy with my distress inks. All the papers on these cards have been made by spritzing DI and 'smooshing' manilla cardstock.  For the top card I crumpled the background and highlighted the creases with walnut stain before ironing smooth again and stamping with Judikins italian script. The postcard stamp is from Crfty individuals, the tree is a Judikins stamp - which I painted with DI then added some glossy accents sprinkled with glamour dust. The numbers are cut from grunge paper to which I've applied a couple of layers of metal accents powder - they don't look as good as the shop bought kind but my budget won't stretch to all those wonderful packs of embellishments available so I try and make my own. I get a bit frustrated sometimes seeing all the wonderful creations about with gorgeous finsihing touches but I try and improvise. 

I'm sharing this card at -
Fashionable Stamping - Vintage
The Artistic Stamper - Numbers
Winter Wonderland = Across the Miles (the postmark on the sentiment panel says 'posted in advance for delivery on christmas')

Anything Goes - anything goes

Ribbon Girl - Jingle all the way to Christmas

My second card took ages - lots of fiddling around trying different background papers and in the end I used Walnut Stain distress inks directly on the card blank and just stamped the snowflake .  I crimped some Manilla cardstock I had smooshed with DI and coloured some white lace with - yep you've guessed it Distress inks - another cost cutting technique I use is to only buy white lace and the I just colour as much as I need to fit my project rather than having to splash out on an assortment of colours that may sit around unused for ages!    After stamping the image on smooshed cardstock I used my water brush to remove some of the colour from the girl to make her stand out a bit more.

I'm sharing this card here -

Ribbon Girl  - green and brown

Gingersnaps - Crimpers

Crafty Ribbons  - anything goes

Well, that's the weekend nearly over, back to work tomorrow - have a good week and thanks for stopping by..Esther xx

Cute Nativity

I have to admit I've felt a little fragile today after a BBQ with friends yesterday - trying to squeeze the last bit of summer out ! But I did manage a bit of crafting today - staying with Christmas and a CAS card with this really sweet LOTV image which I just love. I wanted the image to be the focus so all I've done is add a frame cut with a Nestie and a sentiment - 

This is a lovely image and I've coloured with Pro-markers.

 I'm sharing this at the following challenges -

Just Add Ink - Baby (a baby is the focus of the nativity after all!) 

Less Is more - Anything Goes

Passion for ProMarkers - Beary Special

Sir Stampalot - It's a frame up  

Hope you all have a good week...Thanks for stopping by... Esther xx

                                                         

More CAS Christmas

I really must get a bit more creative with my blog post titles, I'm a bit rubbish at them. Anyway this post is exactly what it says on the tin...a couple of CAS christmas cards. Apologies for the photos, they're a bit dark.

This first one uses a beautiful Penny Black stamp which I've stamped and embossed in silver and then stamped again behind.  The colour wash behind is Distress stains in weathered wood and milled lavender. Less is More this week wanted to see double so I'm entering this over there as well as at Penny Black At Allsorts who are challenging us to get ahead for Christmas.

I then went for bright colours and followed the sketch at Waltzing mouse sketch challenge and made this card. As I'm determined to continue with my Christmas card I'm looking for a festive spin for every challenge I fancy having a go at and this stamp from Waltzing Mouse made me think of Christmas lights so I've used my pro- markers to colour and added some glossy accents. For some reason the red has shown as more orange on the photo but it is a bright Chrismtas red IRL.

Thanks for visiting...I love reading your comments so please let me know what you think. Always grateful for tips...Esther xx

Vintage santa

As you can see I'm still working on Christmas - this time using my new LeBlanche Santa stamp. I've been looking for a Santa stamp for a few years but hadn't been able to find one I really liked - until now. I love this and can tell I'll be using it lots. I've stamped him onto Manila cardstock with black archival and added Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany Distress inks. I've only used the centre part of the stamp - the full image has a very pretty frame but for this I just wanted Santa with a bit of the background.I used cosmic shimmer paint to add white to his beard. 

I've made the background by stamping a message in Fired brick and embossing in clear, then overstamping with a Stamp Addicts script stamp.  I've then used a Stamp Addicts circle greeting stamp as well. This was inspired by 'Just us Girls'  where the challenge is to create a collaged text only background or focal point for our project. 

I wanted to add lace because I thought it went with the lacey effect on the stamp, but I only had white which was far to bright and non-vintagy so I coloured it with Aged Mahogany DI and added a strip of gold ribbon, die cut and layered a poinsettia and finished off with some swirls and a Tim Holtz adage ticket.

I'm sharing this in the following challenges -

Just us Girls - 'Text Me'

Winter Wonderland - 'Santa'

Just for fun - Vintage

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Secret Crafter - Inspired by a song 'Santa Claus is coming to town'

Charisma Cardz - Inspired by a song 'Santa Claus is coming to town'

Crafty Ribbons - Festive cheer in September

Allsorts - Flowers and swirls

Stamp Something - Anything Goes

Fashoinable Stamping - Ribbon and Lace

 Hope you're enjoying the weekend....thanks for stopping by and welcome to my new followers who have joined me recently  -  Esther xx